Hannibal Crosses the Alps
A Route Examined and
a Proposed Alternate Route

Polybius vs. Livy: Short Bios

By Russ Lockwood

Polybius

Polybius lived from about 200-118BC. His father, Lycortas, was a leading statesman of the Achaen League, and Polybius became a cavalry leader. However, following the lost war against Rome and the Battle of Pydna (168BC), Polybius was taken hostage and placed in the home of the victorious Roman commander, Aemilius Paulus, where he was to meet Scipio Aemilianus. Thus, Polybius had some appreciation for military operations and political structure.

He spent 16 years in Rome, writing at least 15 books of his history, covering from 220BC (Second Punic War) to 168BC (conquest of Macedonia). He wrote two books of introductory information about early Roman-Cathaginian relations, including the First Punic War. In effect, his history picked up where Timaeus' history left off at about 264BC. Polybius later expanded his history down to 146BC, the annexation of Greece.

In total, it was 40 books long, of which five survive complete and bits and pieces exist as excerpts in other works. He finished most of the work in 134BC, with additions and corrections over the years down to 120BC, some of which contradict other portions. He never gave the work a final edit.

In the case of the Second Punic War, he accompanied a Roman Army to Spain, interviewed aged veterans of the Hannabalic Wars, and took a trip through the Alps to try and retrace Hannibal's steps. He later wrote a monograph, now lost, about a war against the Spanish city of Numantia in 131BC. He rarely makes overt mistakes, but also ignores details that could assist us in evaluating various operations. Yet, he had experience and access to military information, and probably relied most on these first-hand accounts for his history.

Note that Polybius came from the school where history should be pragmatic. He believed it was not enough to cretae a narrative of events, but to help the reader understand the causes and interconnections between the events and actions, and to learn lessons to help guide future actions. He intended his work for the statesman, not the general public.

Livy

Livy, however, was not a soldier and lived a long time after the Second Punic War. Born in 59BC in Patavium (Padua), he started his history around 29BC and worked on it until his death in 17AD. Little else is known of him, other than he was friendly with the Emperor Augustus and urged the Emperor Claudius to start writing a history of Rome.

Rival Asinus Pollio is quoted tweaking Livy about "patavinitas"--a sort of northern Italian provincialism that might roughly translate as "redneck." But evidently he was a towering literary figure, as one of Pliny's Letters mentions the story of a Spaniard who came to Rome for one look at Livy, and that it was Livy that he was reading that kept him away from Pompeii and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Livy never strayed much from Rome and Padua, and never held office that made him travel thr empire.

Ten books from his 142-book History of Rome cover the Second Punic War, and all have come down to us virtually intact. He used secondary sources and occasional memoirs for his work, and indeed, used Polybius as a main source for his own work. He sometimes makes mistakes in geography and other details, but appears spot on in terms of atmosphere. He is more dramatic than detailed, and yet, within the good dramatic parts, he embeds details that can assist us in discovering the facts.

The Two

Somehow, a reconciliation should be made between the two, and yet, it cannot be since they vary so much. Furthermore, modern authors who try to pierce the shadows of translations run the risk of an error in translation. Indeed, that often occurs when two translators work on the same passages. In the oddest sense, the Penguin Classics translation of the river name makes it appear as Isere in the text, whereas the map of Hannibal's route clearly shows the turn eastwards at the Drome. How can you translate the march one way and depict it another? It is just another example of the controversy of the route.

Who to Believe?

Conventional wisdom says you have to make a choice between Polybius and Livy, or do you? Polybius had military experience, first-hand information from participants, and geographical knowledge based on personal visits some 50 or so years after the war. Livy was a historian 200 years after the war who never seemed to have strayed further from Rome than his native Patavium (Padua). Livy used Polybius as a source, so the two narratives often corroborate in many places. Yet, Livy also used additional sources for his narrative.

Two salient and opposing points come to mind between the two narratives.

Polybius has a more or less direct route from The Island to the Alps, with no rivers to cross. Livy has the famous "turn to the left" and, ultimately, crossing the "Alpine stream" Druentia.

Of more importance is the location in Italy when Hannibal finally descended from the Alps. Polybius specifically says the land of the Insubres while Livy says land of the Taurini, with the Taurini located west of the Insubres.

Can both be right? Perhaps. When are the narratives literal truth and when are they figuratively speaking? That's evidently open to interpretation.

A survey of a multiple scholars' efforts to lay out Hannibal's route will not provide a definitive answer to the question of which way did he go. It is not supposed to. It is supposed to show you that multiple analyses can occur of the same event, and lay out the options. It is up to you to select the route you feel best matches the histories, and understand that the insertion of a hostile army in enemy territory, rather than waiting for the enemy to come to him, was a strategic decision Hannibal made as the best way to win a war against Rome.

Hannibal Crosses the Alps A Route Examined and a Proposed Alternate Route

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© Copyright 2002 by Russ Lockwood.
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